Xarissa Holdaway's Page

It's been an exhausting two days, and I mean that in the best way. It's the exhaustion you get from doing good work: critical thought, difficult questions, solvent solutions. After making the rounds of sessions, plenaries and discussions, I want to go straight to bed and wake up tomorrow full of plots to bring this issue more into the foreground. Because the more attention sustainability gets, the closer we get to answers to questions like these: How can we surpass LEED to make our buildings an… Continue

Three different organizations presented a concurrent session on new systems of evaluating campus sustainability efforts: AASHE STARS System This program is intended to provide a frequently-updated guide for advancing sustainability in all sectors of higher education. By enabling meaningful comparisons across and within institutions and creating incentives for improvements, AASHE hopes this system will build a stronger, more diverse campus community. STARS uses common concepts: -simulta… Continue

Today's opening panel focused on the American College and University President's Climate Commitment. Already halfway to its goal of 1000 signatories by December 2009, this commitment has already been signed by more than 500 university and college presidents. In case you're not familiar with the initiative, the commitment includes a requirement to eliminate campus greenhouse gas emissions and integrate sustainability into curriculum optio… Continue

Here's some background on the issue of the "shadow campus," the topic of Dale McGirr's after-dinner speech. Historically, campus investments haven't done much to develop the towns surrounding them, which leads to shiny new university buildings surrounded by dilapidated historical districts. Less than 30% of students nationwide actually live on campus, which means that 70% live in the shadow campus, which most students will tell you is dingy, often unsafe, and sometimes resentful of student prese… Continue

In a combined session on dining and food-related initiatives, we heard about architectural gardening, food sourcing and composting. Here's the breakdown: Lacy Brittingham from Phase2 Architecture (AIA, LEED-AP) Lacy started with the excellent point that food is a great way to reach people. After all, everybody eats! Considering that agriculture is the greatest nonpoint source of water pollution, and that with most foods, nutritional content seems to decrease as production grows, incorpor… Continue